Bozeman Pass from HIS

[GogebicChief]

Here is what I do... I watch the video with sound off. I get to look at the Route and Equipment and even focus on stuff I am curious about. Then I will sit back and make my decision. This way I let (insert the name of Your choice.) pay for testing it, plus spend the time making video. As someone who worked for many years for an Airline, and had opportunities to travel many places. I can't say I would trust his knowledge as to what someplace should look like. To me as someone who is now retired and on very limited income, he does provide a chance to have a look around before you buy..
To me he seems to have way too much extra time and money, and spends way too much time sitting in a chair playing lots of video games. I play this game for fun and a chance to re-live some better times in my life. Just my

[jalsina]

Given the publicity in this thread about Schnauzahpowahz review, I just finished to look at his entire video.
One sees very good scenery along the track, but don´t go too far from it. Unfortunately, the locos seem to be the same story as in other routes (not just HIS).
One gets acquainted with a lot of details that are not shown in the release DTG article and the info available in there.
Once all said, I better stay put, hold my opinions on and stay with Zawal.

[buzz456]

What does Zawal have to do with anything?

[AmericanSteam]

Zawal had a WIP called Blue Sky Country that covered Bozeman and was well done but was abandoned.

[mindenjohn]

I had forgotten about the G-Traxx RS1, thanks for the reminder.

[buzz456]

I agree that Zawal's route was nicely done however it looks nothing like the part of Montana that he modeled. He obviously has never been there.

[mindenjohn]

The more I see of this route the more I love it. The GP9s are great, love the bell.

[Chacal]

When a new route comes out, most of the negative comments are usually about the engines and rolling stock included. As if the route itself was unimportant.

[RudiJaeger]

Bozeman P - Comparison Inset - Screenshot_01.jpg

Bozeman P - Comparison Inset - Screenshot_02.jpg

Regarding the YT review, I think it's the video settings that are causing all the negative "doesn't look like Montana" remarks; and if my version looked like the YT video, I'd have to agree. To each their own I suppose, but the YT video looks way too saturated to my eyes; Montana is definitely not "lime green", even in Springtime. The screens I posted here were done at max settings using a AM5 7700X cpu paired with an RX 7900 GRE. I'm not using any third party enhancers like AP or RWE, just the in-sim settings. My screens were shot at 1080p (at 11 AM, clear skies, Summer) and the only thing I adjusted to my liking, was turning up the brightness just a little bit, and turning down the contrast, which I think had the biggest impact on getting rid of the over-saturation effect. The screens shown here feature small insets from the YT review to illustrate the difference a few adjustments to gfx settings can make.

Are there flaws with the route? Well sure there are, every route has them depending on how deep in the weeds we want to go. Whenever I evaluate a route, I try not to include the accompanying rolling stock; it's nice to have and all, but if I don't like it, I can always change it out for something else. I grew up three blocks from the NP mainline running from Tacoma to Portland and my big brother worked for the NP, and I still recall when the semaphores were replaced with the target signals. So of course the first thing that caught my attention were the lack of the freshly painted (silver) signal towers and the difference in style. That and the wooden line-side structures are not painted in the distinctive two-tone NP brown "tan & chocolate". And the giant '55 Chevy is still running around; sure we still drove old cars in that era, but they weren't that over-sized compared to other cars. But these are minor discrepancies that the majority wouldn't even know or care about, unless they lived near track-side during the era depicted.

But overall, I think HIS did a great job within the time-frame allocated to complete the route. My goodness, if they spent the time to model everything down to the last little prototypical detail, we may never have even seen this route become available. I've already cloned the route, so I can start adding my own little touches with third-party scenery that wouldn't have been otherwise available for the pay-ware market. Which is another consideration for the limitations the developers were working with; they had to use their own assets, which again, takes time. I'm just happy to have a dedicated NP route to enjoy, and also in one of the most scenic places in America.

[buzz456]

Most of the negative comments are by people who think they have to prove their superiority by seeing something that the rest of us are not smart enough to see.

[jalsina]

Most of the negative comments are by people who think they have to prove their superiority by seeing something that the rest of us are not smart enough to see.

The only way to oppose what Schnauzahpowahz (or Schwarzenegger as I refer to him) has to say about Bozeman Pass (or any other route) is by doing a similar one-hour video demonstrating that all negative points he mentions are not right and therefore he is not right at all.

As for superiority of negative comments people, there is no more superior being in the entire TSC world than yourself, Buzz.

[cnwfan]

I'm not sure what all the hubbub is about, but what I am sure of is that my first run on this route was enjoyable. I think the scenery looked good. I like the era and mix of rolling stock / motive power. Lots of car shuffling opportunities. Another "no regrets" purchase. Maybe the route will get extended east to Billings at some point? Anyways, thank you to the HIS crew for another great route. Well done!

[TheKman]

Well... I got a problem. I just downloaded it and I got freight cars in most of the scenarios that the only thing visiable are the couplers. And there are no quick drives for the route? (No biggie, I know how to makeup my own trains)

Also, and maybe not related, my friend started to download it yesterday and he said it crashed Steam and he had to do a complete reinstall.

[buzz456]

Well... I got a problem. I just downloaded it and I got freight cars in most of the scenarios that the only thing visiable are the couplers. And there are no quick drives for the route? (No biggie, I know how to makeup my own trains)

Also, and maybe not related, my friend started to download it yesterday and he said it crashed Steam and he had to do a complete reinstall.

Not to be negative but it's obvious you got a bad D/L. Do you know how to fix this? As far as your friend he's just wrong . There is little reason to do a complete re-install because of a problem like this unless you don't understand how this works.

[TheKman]

Well... I got a problem. I just downloaded it and I got freight cars in most of the scenarios that the only thing visiable are the couplers. And there are no quick drives for the route? (No biggie, I know how to makeup my own trains)

Also, and maybe not related, my friend started to download it yesterday and he said it crashed Steam and he had to do a complete reinstall.

Not to be negative but it's obvious you got a bad D/L. Do you know how to fix this? As far as your friend he's just wrong . There is little reason to do a complete re-install because of a problem like this unless you don't understand how this works.

Been years since I have had to fix a a bad D/L. Please, a refresher. Thanks